THE  SUPREME  BUSINESS 
OF  THE  CHURCH 


BY  THE  REV.  GEORGE  ROBSON,  D.  D 


I 


LAYMEN'S  MISSIONARY  MOVEMENT 


THE  SUPREME  BUSINESS  OF  THE 
CHURCH  TO  MAKE  CHRIST 
KNOWN  TO  ALL  MANKIND 


An  address  delivered  before  the  Fifth  International  Convention  of  the 
Student  Volunteer  Movement,  Nashville,  Tennessee,  March  1,  1906. 


By 

THE  REV.  GEORGE  ROBSON,  D.  D. 


Copyright,  1 907 
Student  Volunteer  Movement 
for  Foreign  Missions 


The  Supreme  Business  of  the  Church  to  Make 
Christ  Known  to  All  Men 

The  theme  assigned  me  to-night  is  but  the  translation  into 
a  modern  thesis  of  the  last  command  of  our  Lord.  On  the 
eve  of  His  ascension  and  having  in  view  the  constituting  of 
His  Church  on  earth  by  the  sending  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  at  His 
final  meeting  with  the  initial  leaders  of  His  Church  He  summed 
up  the  task  before  them  in  the  words,  “Ye  shall  be  witnesses 
unto  me  both  in  Jerusalem,  and  in  all  Judea,  and  in  Samaria, 
and  unto  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth.”  To-night,  on  this 
opening  day  of  our  Convention,  being  gathered  together  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord  and  with  Him  in  the  midst,  is  not  our 
first  concern  to  apprehend  clearly  His  present  will  concerning 
His  Church,  that  this  and  nothing  else  may  be  the  basis  and 
the  guide  and  the  goal  of  our  proceedings?  The  primary 
charge  stands  unfulfilled  and  unrepealed.  The  presentation 
of  Jesus  Christ  to  ail  mankind  is  still  the  supreme  business  of 
the  Church. 

1 .  Included  in  this  thesis  are  four  points.  The  first  is  that 
the  Church  is  the  appointed  organ  of  missionary  enterprise,  to 
initiate  it,  to  order  it,  and  to  maintain  it.  Now  that  may  seem 
to  you  a  mere  truism,  but  it  is  no  small  gain  to  have  it  accepted 
as  such.  It  took  the  Churches  of  the  Reformation  three  cen¬ 
turies  to  learn  this  truth;  for  you  must  remember  that  the  Re- 


4 


THE  SUPREME  BUSINESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 


formation  was  simply  a  great  revolt  against  the  tyranny  of 
Rome,  a  revolt  which  by  recognizing  the  supreme  authority 
of  the  Word  of  God  liberated  the  faith  of  the  Church  from 
papal  prescription  and  the  government  of  the  Church  from 
papal  autocracy.  It  did  not  by  any  means  effect  the  re-forma- 
tion  of  the  Church  on  the  Apostolic  basis;  it  only  made  the 
process  of  such  re-formation  possible.  Ever  since  the  initial 
act  of  emancipation  this  process  has  been  going  forward,  by 
slow  steps  it  is  true  and  through  tangled  and  painful  conflicts, 
but  with  growing  hopefulness.  Again,  you  must  remember 
that  the  civil  power,  the  organized  state,  was  in  the  providence 
of  God  the  shelter  and  the  bulwark  of  the  Reformed  Churches 
against  the  Papacy.  In  each  land  the  Church  emancipated 
from  the  Papacy  was  reorganized  as  an  entity  within  the  state, 
and  the  state  cared  for  its  order  and  maintenance.  No  better 
solution  of  the  situation  may  have  been  practicable  under  the  cir¬ 
cumstances  of  the  times,  but  it  was  a  solution  disastrous  for 
the  realization  of  the  missionary  function  of  the  Church.  In 
effect  it  made  the  exercise  of  that  function  dependent  on  the 
state.  In  Germany,  Justinian  von  Weltz,  the  noblest  advocate 
of  missions  in  the  1  7th  century,  addressed  his  summons,  not  to 
the  Church,  but  to  the  Diet  of  the  Empire,  and  its  rejection 
there  left  the  Church  missionless  for  two  centuries.  In  Den¬ 
mark  it  made  the  sending  of  Ziegenbalg,  the  first  Protestant 
missionary  to  India,  exactly  200  years  ago,  an  affair  of  the 
Court,  from  which  the  Church  held  itself  unsympathetically 
aloof.  In  Plolland  and  in  Britain  it  led  the  state  to  avow 
a  missionary  design  as  a  pious  reason  for  planting  colonies  and 


THE  SUPREME  BUSINESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 


5 


seizing  territories  in  newly  discovered  lands  beyond  the  seas, 
and  the  Church  was  brought  in  simply  as  an  auxiliary  to  that 
design.  Even  the  work  of  John  Eliot  among  the  Indians  was 
vindicated  by  him  as  an  implementing  of  the  obligation  im¬ 
posed  in  the  charter  of  the  colony.  But  the  wonderful  story 
of  that  work  gave  to  men  a  new  vision  of  the  opportunities 
within  their  reach.  The  work  of  evangelization  was  seen  to 
admit  in  many  ways  of  free  co-operative  endeavor;  and  forth¬ 
with  there  began  to  spring  up  little  societies  for  disseminating 
knowledge,  for  promoting  prayer,  and  gathering  contributions 
to  aid  the  work  in  the  colonies. 

Then  came  the  strong  religious  movements  on  both  sides 
of  the  Atlantic  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  1  8th  century ;  and  the 
close  of  that  century  brought  the  splendid  birth  time  of  what 
are  now  the  great  missionary  societies  of  the  Protestant  world. 
These  societies,  however,  were  at  first  only  ecclesiolae  in 
ecclesia ,  groups  of  Christians  voluntarily  associated  for  mis¬ 
sionary  purposes,  who  while  remaining  within  their  churches 
were  far  from  committing  the  churches  to  their  special  en¬ 
deavor.  Almost  everywhere  indeed  the  Church  in  its  organized 
administration  held  aloof  from  these  societies  and  even  disap¬ 
proved  their  constitution  and  methods,  if  not  their  aims.  Grad¬ 
ually,  however,  and  in  recent  times  with  wonderful  rapidity,  the 
misconceptions  of  the  past  have  rolled  away  like  morning 
mists  before  the  sun ;  and  in  the  clearer  light  of  a  wider  day  al¬ 
most  all  have  come  to  see  what  the  Moravion  Church  per¬ 
ceived  from  the  beginning  of  its  history,  that  the  Church  as 
such,  is  the  institution  entrusted  with  the  Gospel  for  mankind. 


6 


THE  SUPREME  BUSINESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 


There  are  still  indeed  diversities  of  method.  There  are 
churches  which  conduct  their  missionary  operations  as  a  work 
organized  by  the  Church  itself;  and  there  are  churches  which 
conduct  their  missionary  operations  through  an  independent  so¬ 
ciety  in  close  alliance  with  itself;  and  there  are  societies  con¬ 
ducting  missionary  operations  by  means  of  the  co-operation 
of  members  of  various  churches  in  the  work.  But  whatever 
be  the  line  of  action  along  which  we  seek  to  give  practical 
effect  to  the  common  obligation,  we  are  one  in  recognizing  that 
the  Church  as  such,  of  her  own  inherent  right,  in  virtue  of 
her  constitution,  and  at  her  own  charges,  is  the  appointed  organ 
for  the  evangelization  of  the  world.  At  last  we  have  won  this 
rich  fruit  of  the  Reformation  in  the  recovery  and  acceptance  of 
the  Apostolic  conception  of  the  Church  as  the  instrument 
chosen,  fashioned,  and  endowed  by  the  ascended  Savior  for 
the  work  of  gathering  mankind  into  union  with  Himself. 

1  1.  This  brings  me  to  my  second  point.  If  the  Church 
has  been  divinely  formed  to  be  the  organ  of  the  missionary 
enterprise,  what  exactly  is  the  missionary  enterprise  entrusted 
to  her?  I  venture  to  say  that  it  is  most  truly  conceived  when 
we  recognize  that  its  essence  and  sum  is  the  presentation  of 
Christ — that  before  all,  that  through  all,  that  beyond  all.  This 
enterprise  is  not  a  mere  campaign  to  overthrow  the  beliefs  and 
worships  of  heathendom  by  the  introduction  of  Christianity,  but 
is  a  campaign  to  present  Christ  as  the  light  of  the  world,  who 
lifts  into  fulfillment  the  scattered  prophecies  of  truth  and  aspira¬ 
tions  of  good,  conserved  and  struggling  in  the  religions  of 
heathendom,  and  who  at  the  same  time  compels  the  grateful 


THE  SUPREME  BUSINESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 


7 


abandonment  of  the  whole  mass  of  what  is  false  and  evil 
in  those  religions.  The  missionary  enterprise  is  not  a  scheme 
for  creating  foreign  extensions  or  dependencies  of  the  home 
churches,  but  it  is  a  scheme  for  presenting  to  those  of  other 
kindreds  and  tongues  the  Christ,  who  is  the  Way  for  all  to 
the  Father  of  all,  and  in  whom  there  is  for  all  nations  a 
fellowship  of  equal  and  eternal  brotherhood.  The  mission¬ 
ary  enterprise  is  not  a  movement  for  the  expansion  of  com¬ 
merce  and  culture  and  civilization,  but  it  is  a  movement 
for  the  making  known  of  that  Divine  Lord  who,  wherever  His 
influence  is  received,  guides  human  life  to  nobler  uses,  en¬ 
riching  alike  the  individual  and  the  community.  May  I  add 
that  if  you  have  regard  simply  to  the  task  of  the  Church,  the 
missionary  enterprise  is  not  even  an  endeavor  to  convert  the 
heathen;  for  conversion  is  distinctively  the  work  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  the  work  committed  to  the  Church  is  only  that  of 
so  making  Christ  known  that  He  shall  be  seen  to  be  the 
Redeemer  of  mankind. 

How,  then,  is  Fie  to  be  made  known?  In  three  ways. 
He  is  to  be  declared  in  missionary  preaching.  The  message 
entrusted  to  the  Church  is  a  proclamation  of  Christ.  It  is  the 
story  of  His  birth  into  the  human  family,  of  Flis  unique  life 
in  the  flesh,  of  His  death  of  awful  mystery  upon  the  cross, 
and  of  His  wondrous  resurrection  from  the  dead.  But  it  is 
more  than  a  story.  It  is  a  statement  of  these  facts  so  that 
they  become  the  certification  of  a  Savior  who  is  the  gift  of 
God  to  all  time  and  to  all  mankind.  True,  the  missionary 
has  to  show  to  men  their  sinful  and  lost  condition,  but  it  is  in 


8 


THE  SUPREME  BUSINESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 


the  beholding  of  Christ  that  the  reality  and  the  sinfulness  of 
sin  are  most  convincingly  brought  home  to  the  conscience. 
True,  the  missionary  has  to  educate  men  in  ethical  practice, 
but  the  supreme  ethical  standard,  as  well  as  the  supreme  ethi¬ 
cal  dynamic,  is  Christ.  “The  true  morality,  O  bleeding 
Lamb,  is  love  of  thee.”  Christ,  therefore  must  be  the  all- 
transcending,  all-pervading,  all-dominating  theme  of  missionary 
preaching. 

The  Christ  is  also  to  be  revealed  in  missionary  life.  There 
is  sometimes  a  preaching  of  Christ  which  is  unaccompanied  by 
any  personal  reflection  of  His  image.  When  this  occurs  in  a 
foreign  field  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  missionary  may  still 
be  highly  honored  for  the  impression  he  gives  of  superior 
culture,  of  Western  civilization,  of  foreign  power,  but  the  fail¬ 
ure  to  give  any  impression  of  the  distinctive  quality  of  Christian 
saintship  is  failure  in  the  very  essence  of  the  enterprise.  For, 
just  as  at  home  the  Christian  pastor  should  be  the  most  Christ- 
like  man  in  the  congregation,  so  the  missionary  who  goes 
among  heathen  people  goes  not  only  to  carry  tidings  of  Christ, 
but  to  let  them  see  a  vision  of  Christ  in  the  manner  of  his 
own  life  and  spirit. 

And  Christ  is  to  be  attested  also  by  missionary  benefi¬ 
cence.  “The  works  that  I  do  in  my  Father’s  name,”  said 
Christ  as  He  stood  on  the  earth,  “they  bear  witness  of  me.” 
The  works  done  in  His  name  on  the  mission  field  bear  witness 
of  Him  still.  The  dispensary,  the  hospital,  the  school,  the 
production  of  Christian  literature,  the  industrial  institution,  the 
manifold  influences  that  create  pure  homes  and  social  order  and 


THE  SUPREME  BUSINESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 


9 


peaceful  well-being — these  have  their  place  in  the  missionary 
enterprise  simply  because  they  are  inseparable  from  the  spirit 
of  Christ  living  and  working  in  His  servants  who  are  face 
to  face  with  the  needs  of  heathendom;  and  all  these  in  their 
various  ministry  to  the  good  of  men  are  but  a  part  of  the  reve¬ 
lation  of  the  all-embracing  Saviorship  of  Christ.  Thus  the 
essence  and  the  sum  of  the  missionary  enterprise  is  to  make 
known  the  Christ — the  living,  divine,  eternal  Christ,  who  is 
present  among  us  in  the  power  of  His  Spirit,  who  through  us 
is  seeking  and  saving  the  lost,  and  is  mighty  to  save  them  to 
the  uttermost.  And  wherever  the  missionary  enterprise  is  suc¬ 
cessful,  there  is  in  the  human  heart  an  instinctive  recognition 
of  the  revelation  of  Christ  as  the  basis  and  crown  of  the  whole 
change  which  has  been  wrought.  It  was  put  in  a  nutshell 
by  the  little  Manchurian  girl,  who,  in  speaking  of  the  flower- 
planted  grave  of  her  baby  brother,  said,  “The  grave  has  be* 
come  a  new  place  to  us  since  Jesus  came  to  our  village.”  Our 
work  is  simply  to  make  Him  known,  who  wherever  He  u 
welcomed  makes  all  things  new. 

III.  My  third  point  naturally  follows.  The  scope  of 
the  missionary  enterprise  is  conterminous  with  mankind.  The 
Christ  is  to  be  made  known  to  all  men  everywhere.  For  this 
reason  among  others,  our  Lord  ascended  to  the  right  hand  of 
the  Father,  that  the  revelation  of  Him  might  no  longer  be 
conditioned  by  connection  with  a  particular  locality  or  nation, 
but  that  he  might  place  Himself  in  equal  relations  to  all  men 
everywhere.  And,  correspondingly,  the  coming  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  whose  office  it  is  to  glorify  Christ,  is  not  affected  by  race 


10'  THE  SUPREME  BUSINESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 


or  by  color,  but  is  free  as  the  wind  which  bends  alike  the 
Northern  pine  and  the  Southern  palm.  Most  emphatically 
does  the  Book  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  teach  that  national¬ 
ity,  climate,  territory,  have  no  place  among  the  foundations 
of  the  City  of  God.  Geographical  considerations  may  order 
the  procedure  of  the  enterprise,  but  they  are  forbidden  to  limit 
its  scope.  And  so  the  distinction  between  home  and  foreign 
missions,  while  convenient  in  administration,  has  no  spiritual 
basis.  The  true  home  land  of  the  Church  is  defined  by  the 
v/ords,  “In  Christ  Jesus”;  and  all  who  know  not  Christ, 
wherever  they  be,  whether  within  the  walls  of  your  city,  or 
the  boundary  of  your  state,  or  beyond  those  boundaries  among 
neighboring  nations,  or  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth, 
these  constitute  the  one  outland,  the  field  of  missionary  enter¬ 
prise.  And  in  that  outland  is  there  a  single  class  of  society 
at  home,  is  there  a  single  tribe  or  sect  in  the  non-Christian 
world  of  which  you  are  prepared  to  say  that  the  incarnation  of 
the  Son  of  God  has  no  meaning  for  them.  His  life  no  message 
for  them.  His  atoning  death  no  value  for  them?  that  they  are 
beyond  the  embrace  of  His  love,  or  above  His  power  of 
blessing  or  beneath  it?  Those  who  know  not  Jesus  may  use 
such  language,  but  we  who  know  Him  cannot.  Have  we  not 
seen  among  the  most  vicious  in  the  cesspools  of  our  crowded 
city  life,  as  well  as  among  the  bloodthirsty  cannibals  of  New 
Guinea,  and  the  brutish  weaklings  of  Tierra  del  Fuego,  and 
the  lustful  idolators  of  India,  that  even  those  in  the  very  lowest 
depths  of  degeneration  the  love  of  Christ  is  mighty  to  rescue  and 
renew?  Amd  have  we  not  also  seen  how  in  the  mission  fields 


THE  SUPREME  BUSINESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 


II 


among  Eastern  nations  the  evidence  is  every  day  accumulat¬ 
ing  that  not  in  their  ancient  religions  but  in  Jesus  Christ  the  most 
earnest  souls  are  finding  the  truth  which  satisfies  the  intellect, 
the  power  which  regenerates  life,  the  hope  which  illumines 
the  future?  So  to  all  nations,  made  of  one  blood,  dwelling 
on  the  face  of  the  earth,  to  all  the  children  of  men  created  in 
the  image  oi  God,  to  every  human  being  in  whose  flesh  the 
Son  of  God  has  come — to  all  He  is  to  be  made  known;  for 
to  their  need  of  Him  there  is  no  exception,  and  to  His  power 
to  save  them  there  is  no  limit.  He  is  the  gift  of  the  Father 
to  all;  He  died  to  make  atonement  for  the  sins  of  all;  He  has 
been  lifted  up  to  draw  all  men  unto  Him. 

IV.  If  these  things  be  so,  I  need  not  elaborate  my  closing 
point,  which  is  this,  that  the  presentation  of  Christ  to  all  man¬ 
kind  is  the  supreme  business  of  the  Church.  I  clo  not  speak 
now  of  the  final  purpose  of  the  Church.  That  will  be  seen 
when  she  is  completed  in  multitude  and  perfected  in  character. 
Cur  view  at  present  is  limited  to  that  generation  of  the  universal 
Church  which  by  the  will  of  our  Lord  is  living  now  in  this 
present  world;  and  the  question  before  us  is,  what  is  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  our  Lord  in  locating  and  maintaining  this  super¬ 
natural  organization  in  the  midst  of  mankind,  and  what  is 
our  plain  duty  as  determined  by  His  purpose?  It  is  placed 
beyond  question  by  His  parting  charge.  After  His  own  per¬ 
sonal  work  on  earth  had  been  accomplished,  He  furnished  a 
pregnant  foreword  to  the  new  era  of  redemption  in  the  forty 
days  between  the  resurrection  and  the  ascension;  and  of  that 
whole  foreword  the  new  and  triumphant  characteristic  was  the 


12  THE  SUPREME  BUSINESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 


one  great  charge,  “Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the 
Gospel  to  every  creature.’’  “Make  disciples  of  all  nations.’’ 
“Ye  shall  be  my  witnesses  .  .  .  unto  the  uttermost  part 

of  the  earth.’’  Through  all  these  centuries  the  charge  comes 
down  to  the  present  generation  telling  of  a  task  yet  unaccom¬ 
plished,  of  a  purpose  and  a  desire  in  the  heart  of  our  ascended 
Lord  for  whose  fulfilling  He  is  waiting  at  our  hands,  if  per¬ 
chance  we  are  ready  to  do  His  will.  It  is  not  the  mere  author¬ 
ity  of  His  commandment  which  summons  us  to  this  duty,  im¬ 
perative  though  that  be.  His  commandment  is  in  reality  the 
declaration  of  an  obligation  involved  in  the  very  nature  of  the 
case.  Consider  what  Christ  really  is  and  desires  to  become 
to  the  world  of  mankind  and  what  mankind  is  to  find  in  Him ; 
and  consider,  on  the  other  hand,  the  position  of  the  Church 
between  the  two,  knowing  Christ  and  living  by  Him,  and  yet 
in  direct  contact  with  the  world.  Is  it  not  plain  that  even  if 
no  missionary  commandment  had  ever  been  spoken,  still  the 
Church  could  not  be  answering  to  her  divine  ideal  nor  fulfilling 
her  sacred  function,  if  the  end  of  her  manifold  labors  were 
anything  less  than  the  presentation  of  Christ  to  all  mankind? 

What,  then,  is  the  present  practical  requirement?  In 
the  first  place  this,  that  the  life  of  every  individual  Chris¬ 
tian  should  be  adjusted  to  this  end.  For,  whatever  be  his  call¬ 
ing  or  station,  the  very  fact  of  membership  in  the  body  of 
Christ  implies  that  he  is  called  through  some  form  of  service 
to  co-operate  in  the  common  task;  and  when  once  his  heart 
has  learned  to  beat  in  sympathy  with  the  love  that  bled  on 
Calvary,  and  when  once  his  will  is  resolved  to  seek  to  make 


THE  SUPREME  BUSINESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 


13 


Jesus  King,  then  his  life  will  promptly  yield  its  meed  or  help 
toward  the  great  end,  and  the  yielding  of  it  will  be  to  him  the 
honor  and  the  joy  of  earthly  existence. 

Secondly,  it  is  necessary  that  the  congregational  life  be 
adjusted  to  this  end.  At  present  the  life  of  far  too  many  of 
our  congregations  is  sterilized  by  its  self-centered  character. 
The  world-wide  duty  of  the  congregation  is  relegated  to  a 
secondary  place,  and  the  congregation  is  proportionately  non- 
efhcient  for  the  chief  purpose  of  the  Church.  What  is  needed 
in  order  that  it  may  come  into  line  with  the  will  of  Christ 
and  may  fulfil  its  function  in  His  Church  is  that  all  its  en¬ 
deavors  should  be  so  ordered  as  to  subserve  and  culminate  in 
world-wide  missionary  service. 

And,  thirdly,  it  is  necessary  not  only  that  the  life  of 
every  denomination  be  adjusted  to  this  end,  but  also  that  there 
be  a  genuine  co-operation  of  all  the  Churches  to  accomplish  it. 
We  have  had  conferences  international,  ecumenical,  which  have 
been  helpful  toward  co-operation  in  various  ways;  but  whit 
we  are  yet  waiting  for  is  a  conference  of  authorized  delegates 
from  the  various  Churches  who  may  arrange  that,  instead  of 
the  independent  action  which  to-day  is  crowding  missionaries 
of  many  denominations  into  one  limited  area,  while  other  and 
larger  areas  are  wholly  unoccupied,  there  shall  be  a  concerted 
plan  for  the  systematic  distribution  of  their  combined  missionary 
forces,  so  as  to  secure  a  united  advance  into  every  field  of 
heathendom  for  the  presentation  of  Christ  to  all  mankind.  It 
needs,  dear  friends — I  venture  to  say,  it  only  needs — the  full 
consecration  and  the  wise  application  of  the  vast  unused  or 


14 


THE  SUPREME  BUSINESS  OF  THE  CHURCH 


misdirected  resources  of  the  Church  of  Christ  on  earth  through¬ 
out  her  whole  membership,  in  order  that  a  presentation  of 
Christ  to  all  mankind  may  take  place  within  a  single  generation. 

And  the  immediate  urgency  of  this  task  is  emphasized  by 
co-operative  movements  in  the  divine  government  of  the  world. 
Never  was  the  opportunity  for  the  task  so  favorable  as  it  is  to¬ 
day.  The  opening  of  almost  every  land  for  the  evangelistic 
enterprise,  the  undoing  of  forces  that  threatened  to  bar  the 
progress  of  the  Gospel,  the  ever  growing  facilities  of  com¬ 
munication  between  remotest  places,  the  ever  growing  inter¬ 
course  between  different  nations,  giving  a  new  accent  to  the 
recognition  of  a  common  humanity,  the  racial  and  the  inter¬ 
national  problems  that  are  pressing  to  the  front  and  for  which 
we  see  an  effective  solution  only  in  a  living  Christianity — - 
these  things,  together  with  the  mighty  outpourings  of  the 
Spirit  of  God  on  far  separated  fields  at  home  and  abroad  and 
the  manifest  trend  in  the  Churches  toward  union  in  the  face  of 
the  common  foe,  all  these  things  discover  to  us  the  magnificence 
of  the  present  opportunity  and  bid  us  seize  it.  Who  knoweth 
but  thou,  each  delegate  in  this  Convention,  art  come  to  the 
Kingdom,  to  thy  Kingdom,  for  such  a  time  as  this?  The  time 
gives  to  us  the  opportunity  of  need,  the  opportunity  of  power, 
the  opportunity  of  devotion.  In  this  Convention,  then,  at  the 
feet  of  our  ascended  but  present  Lord,  let  us  yield  ourselves 
anew  to  Him,  that  being  cleansed  from  sin  and  being  endowed 
anew  with  power  from  on  high,  we  may  in  this  our  day 
endowed  with  power  from  on  high,  we  may  in  this  our  day 
and  generation  bear  witness  of  Christ  unto  the  uttermost  parts 
of  the  earth. 


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